


Surmise

by julieliu



Category: Candy Series | 糖果系列 | Siri Candy
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - High School, Cormilla, F/M, First Love, Implied Bisexual Corey, Inspired by GFRIEND's Summer Rain, Jealousy, Love Confessions, Writer Emilia, more rain, rainy day, they're teenagers here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-18
Updated: 2019-04-18
Packaged: 2020-01-15 22:44:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18508588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/julieliu/pseuds/julieliu
Summary: surmise/səˈmʌɪz/verbsuppose that something is true without having evidence to confirm it.





	Surmise

**Author's Note:**

> The very first Candy Jem work here!!! Hello:) I hope you like Cormilla as much as I do.

surmise  
/səˈmʌɪz/  
verb  
suppose that something is true without having evidence to confirm it.

_______

For as long as Emilia could remember, she had always kept notebooks of words she had never seen before. Words that she had read in books, magazines; even found in the nooks and crannies of her father's monthly newsletters. She listened in on his calls with fellow businessmen, taking down whatever jargon left his lips. In her bedroom she has a few notebooks full of them. Emilia's vocabulary was terrific. Now, don't let anyone know, but using fancy terms to describe day to day matters made her feel just as fancy. As you can infer, most of the time she scored stellar on all her compositions. Words was her way of escape. 

Emilia spun stories with a pen. Silken threads of ideas were weaved together on paper. She did not write about worlds of lands yonder, nor of tragic stories written by hopeless romantics. Instead, she wrote about herself, not in the way one would expect. It was about feelings foreign to her. There were so many things she never experienced as a child. She tried to identify all these new things. Despite having roughly a million words in the English language, none were enough good enough to describe them. How complicated. 

She would write about how whichever the harsh sunlight framed his face, he would look ethereal. His stupidly bright grin he wore seemed to rival the sun's. Emilia didn't get it when writers wrote about having butterflies in their chests. For her, it was more of.. a shedding. An icy feeling every time her heart shed a layer. It also felt heavier than before. Nothing romantic about it. In fact, she disliked the sensation. Okay, maybe she was a bit of a romantic. Just a bit. So what him her heart rattled every time he was near? It didn't mean anything. It was good that he went to a different school. 

On several occasions she would meet up with just Corey. Nowadays Emilia wished she was as calm and as cool as she appeared to be back when she was eleven. They didn't go out on dates or any of the sort. The two would eat a sweet pastry or two at a local café, and catch up with each other. Emilia would tutor Corey. It was nice.

She grasped her bag strap as she walked up to the prestigious school. Corey had entered a famous sports school through his athletic prowess. At first she was worried because he was one of the only students in her school to get in. Emilia underestimated him. He was a fish to water. Always bright, he would fit in nicely. Carefully, she kicked a pebble out of the way, skipping a few steps down the pavement. Exams were nearing. She walked up to the school gate. The rush of students after school had left earlier. From here she could recognise Corey from behind. The brunet was talking to another student. 

Emilia smoothed out her pinafore. Snippets of their conversation drifted by here and there. She turned around. Smiling, Corey's short haired classmate pressed their palm to his. They moved it side to side, all while the hands were together, before waving goodbye. It was a friendly, sweet gesture, but it made her heart curl up a sickly green. How dare she! She shouldn't be forcing this on Corey. Emilia didn't even know whether he had the same feelings. Then she stared down at her uniform. "Hi, Emilia!" A cheery voice pierced through her hazy mind. 

"Took you long enough." She got up, not sparing a glance behind. The girl had surmised, once in a while, that Corey liked her back. It gave her too much hope. 

As per usual, the café was unusually quiet during this time. they most students preferred the more sugary spots in town. A lukewarm cappuccino was particularly lovely after a long school day. The pair pulled out their books and talked about the subjects they were both taking. "Um, shouldn't it be substituting x into two instead of x into three?" Pin drop silence. Rookie mistake: they had learnt the basics of this back in form 3. A few more slip ups would have Corey on her tail. 

After mentally calculating that 133 to the power of 2 was 266, he really began to wonder. What was going on with her today? Despite being very sensible, she was thinking about what had happened the past weeks. That photo with his teammate.. being his confidant when one of his exes on the team had left him for another. His classmate had comforted him. Maybe he liked them? How upsetting. On the ceiling the speaker played a little tune to fill up the gap.

"What's wrong?" Corey's questioning words are softly spoken. There is a gentleness not even the winds can rival. She corrected another mistake she had made on her worksheet. 

The girl nibbled on the inside of her cheek. Swaying her pen slightly, she simply shook her head. One. Two. One. Two. One. Two. One. Two. Droplets of rain flounder lopsidedly through the air, drumming against the glass wall. One. Two. One. Two. One. Two. This time she watched Corey scribble down on his paper. Her drink is lukewarm. She ran her tongue over the crispiness at the back of her throat. And she wrote a little more. She made notes out of her vapid textbook. One. Two. One. Two. One. Two. Emilia (if she could remove the strings that had suddenly sewn her mouth together) would say that there's an animal in the room. A humongous one, towering above everyone else. It is gray and has tough skin. With its wide, beady eyes, it stared at them. The two regarded it as if it was a miniscule ant. 

They only exchanged a few words. The clock chimed five times. It was time to go. Being the gentleman he was, Corey insisted on walk her back home every time. Did you manage to guess the animal aforementioned? The elephant in the room sauntered after them. It copied every step they took. That's what they get for ignoring it! She did not know why it was difficult to look Corey in the eye today. Emilia would write down that feeling once she got home. Pretty neat. And then Corey turned to look at her, stopping in his tracks. One. Two. One. Two. It felt like his gaze was burning a hole in her skin. She swallowed. Slowly, Emilia met his steady gaze.

Three. 

The pounding of her heart was all she could hear in her ears. So loud, it was almost deafening. "Were you jealous?" His tone is brisk, nothing close to his usual tilting one. All she wanted to do was to stop this eye contact. His pupils are such a simple shade of hazel, but she can't look away. Falling, her composed mask began to melt. Tears prickle underneath. Again, her heart shed a layer. Ice poured down. 

Emilia's hands find her way to her skirt. It crumpled in her tight grasp. The vocabulary she prided herself on vanished in that moment. What does she say? "So what if I am?" There she went. This friendship was fun while it lasted. They could never be as open. It would be so awkward. No reparations would make it up. The girl swiftly dropped her head downwards. If her stare could shoot lasers into the floor, it would have a hole in it. 

A lump gathered in her throat. Don't look up. Her imagination runs wild. An arm slid under her shoulder, wrapping it around her. Corey pulled her flush against his chest. The faint rattling of her heart thawed out. He's so warm. Hands icy from air conditioning, she boldly threw a hand across his nape. How does she smell like? And Corey smelled like dried deodorant, perfumed, a crispy, sweet minty scent: nearly feminine. It reminded her of the time when Corey asked for her help. They spent half an hour on picking out a deodorant among twenty others. She remembered holding it up to her nose to take a whiff, then recommending it to him. 

As soon as it had happened, they let go of each other. Immediately, Corey shot up his hand to hide his face. "What's wrong?" Emilia asked quizzically. 

"I'm sorry. I'm just so sorry, I .. just hugged you like that!" She finally noticed his red tipped ears. Right after that, it began to drizzle. The two ran for shelter, splashing water onto their shoes and soaking their socks. Still in shock, he laughed, shaking in bursts of rain. Emilia crossed her arms, exasperated. But his laughter is the sound of zealousness, so she cannot be annoyed. Instead she allowed her lips to curl up in a fond smile. Whatever they are now, she does not know. They are so young. What's the rush? A giggle escape her throat, and they sort of laugh at each other for a long while. 

The girl surmised; at that moment, that there would be more days together to come. She will try to write down this other feeling in her notebook once she gets home. The rain chatter mindlessly as they drum a steady beat against the roof. The wind was humming loudly. There they are, almost as if they are the only two in their little bubble. (Yes, the elephant enjoyed the rain too. But there was no more elephant in the room, or should I say road?)

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so I'm gonna write more of candy series.. any of you want any ship? I have some plots in mind..


End file.
